After injury, Pro2 driver, Joey Provenza, hands driving duties over to RJ Anderson.

UTV Weekly | May 27, 2013

Las Vegas based short course race team loaded up their semi hit the highway at full speed. Destination, Lake Elsinore, CA for rounds 5&6 of the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series. Just under a month ago, Pro2 Driver, Joey Provenza, made his debut in the series. However this past weekend, Joey would be watching his truck race from the sidelines.

After 2 rounds of practice, Joey realized he needed to push harder and get better lap times. Back at the pit, spotter, Barry Beacham, assured Joey that he needed to be confident in his line choices and not be intimidated by traffic on the course. The crew made slight changes to the truck and zipped up the pit, prepared for qualifying the following morning.

As the morning sun was quickly drying out the freshly watered course, Joey was behind the wheel of his #11 JPM/Shriners Pro2 and ready for qualifying. Running mid-pack during qualifying, Joey was following the lines of veteran racers, when he came off a jump and felt a sharp pain in his lower back. Making the call right away to pull off the course and get checked out by paramedics, the decision was made that Joey would go to the hospital and make sure the injury was nothing serious. Doctors reassured Joey that he would be ok, but it would be best to not race.

After going over their options, the team and Joey decided to offer RJ Anderson the opportunity to race the Pro2 truck for rounds 5&6. The experienced ProLite driver accepted the offer. RJ would be racing his ProLite and after the checkered flag, he would immediately get in the drivers seat of the #11

Starting in the back for Saturdays race, RJ quickly made clean passes on numerous trucks. The young driver held a solid 10th place finish out of 19 trucks and the truck was still race ready for Sunday. Qualifying for round 6 would set RJ in the 15th starting position, 8th row and next to Mike Porter.

Fresh off his ProLite win, RJ staged for the Pro2 race and minutes later he was racing into turn one. Sundays Pro2 race seemed to fly by and with very few cautions. But it would be the final caution of the race that would give every driver the opportunity to fight for a better finishing position. A race to the finish with green, white and then checkered allowed RJ to make last minute passes and end the weekend with an 11th place finish for Joey and the JPM team.

With 5 weeks till the next LOORRS race, Joey is going to attempt to get more testing and seat time so he can better his on track presence. Joey would like to thank RJ and the Stronghold Team for their help and allowing RJ to race the Pro2. Be sure to follow JPM on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram!

Words and Photos by: JennHell Media Group